Decentralized approaches to wastewater treatment and management: applicability in developing countries

Providing reliable and affordable wastewater treatment in rural areas is a challenge in many parts of the world, particularly in developing countries. The problems and limitations of the centralized approaches for wastewater treatment are progressively surfacing. Centralized wastewater collection and treatment systems are costly to build and operate, especially in areas with low population densities and dispersed households. Developing countries lack both the funding to construct centralized facilities and the technical expertise to manage and operate them. Alternatively, the decentralized approach for wastewater treatment which employs a combination of onsite and/or cluster systems is gaining more attention. Such an approach allows for flexibility in management, and simple as well as complex technologies are available. The decentralized system is not only a long-term solution for small communities but is more reliable and cost effective. This paper presents a review of the various decentralized approaches to wastewater treatment and management. A discussion as to their applicability in developing countries, primarily in rural areas, and challenges faced is emphasized all through the paper. While there are many impediments and challenges towards wastewater management in developing countries, these can be overcome by suitable planning and policy implementation. Understanding the receiving environment is crucial for technology selection and should be accomplished by conducting a comprehensive site evaluation process. Centralized management of the decentralized wastewater treatment systems is essential to ensure they are inspected and maintained regularly. Management strategies should be site specific accounting for social, cultural, environmental and economic conditions in the target area.     

珠江三角洲经济区污水系统设计原则

分析了珠江三角洲经济区水环境现状；阐述了城市污水分散处理与集中处理的利弊；指出污水深度处理与回用是形成良性水循环的有效途径，更是经济可持续发展的必然要求；通过对已建排水系统存在问题的分析，探讨了珠江三角洲经济开发区污水系统的设计原则，认为污水系统规划要改变传统设计方法，应方便再生水回用，由经济、技术、地理等综合因素确定排水分区、污水厂厂址与数量，选择适合各排水区域水质水量的工艺流程，预留污水厂与再生水回用管线分期发展的空间，应优先选用国产污水处理设备，尽可能维持城市河涌自然生态。     

分散性污水处理技术研究进展

针对我国的实际情况,将集中污水处理与分散污水处理效果进行了对比,结果表明,分散污水处理是节省投资、降低能耗、维护生态平衡、推行可持续发展的一种先进技术,适用于农村和其他未普及管网的地区。采用分散型污水处理系统和集中污水处理系统相结合的方式是中国目前既解决环保问题又保持可持续性发展的有效途径。文中详细介绍了分散型污水处理技术的概念、优点以及主要的技术形式,预测了其发展前景,并提出了相应的发展战略。     

The role of satellite and decentralized strategies in water resources management

Existing and projected water shortages and related factors have helped focus attention on the need for water reuse. With recent technological advances in wastewater treatment, it is now possible to produce reclaimed water of any quality. Thus, the use of reclaimed water will depend on the reuse opportunities and the cost of the required infrastructure. Historically, centralized wastewater treatment facilities have served the needs of organized societies since the mid 1800s. However, as there are limited options for expansion of most existing centralized facilities, the use of satellite and decentralized wastewater management systems offers significant advantages including being close both to the source of wastewater generation and to potential water reuse applications. The comparative advantages of satellite and decentralized wastewater management systems for a number of water reuse applications are presented and discussed in this paper. Selected case studies are presented to demonstrate the utility of satellite and decentralized wastewater management. Specific issues associated with the application of such systems in existing and in new developments are examined and discussed.     

Cost analysis of alternative methods for wastewater handling in small communities

Wastewater collection and treatment is quite important for sustainable management. It would be uneconomical and impractical to provide sewer systems and separate wastewater treatment plants (WWTP) for small communities. The decision process in wastewater planning is rather important in terms of comparing the alternatives considered. The two important points in the management of wastewater at rural areas not connected to a sewer system are to develop an optimized operation strategy and to make sure that the complete system is environmentally and economically sustainable. In some regions, package treatment could be an alternative solution. However, in cases where there is an existing large WWTP, a cluster system, where sewage generated by small communities could be transported via conveyors to a centralized WWTP, could be employed. In this study, the wastewater treatment and disposal problems in small communities were addressed and an alternative wastewater handling scenario was proposed. Additionally, three wastewater handling scenarios were compared. As a case study, Gebze villages were selected.     

炼化污水“零排放”技术现状与发展趋势

在节能降耗、节水减排已成为国策的背景下,炼化污水集中处理达标排放的末端治理已经不能满足炼化行业发展,炼化污水"零排放"的实施将是大势所趋。在实施炼化污水"零排放"过程中,应深化开展水系统优化、技术创新集成等工作,将节能、节水、减排有机结合,突破制约污水"零排放"的技术瓶颈,并将技术成熟化、管理制度化,形成完整的炼化污水"零排放"技术体系,促进我国炼化企业的可持续发展。     

A comparative analysis of methods to represent uncertainty in estimating the cost of constructing wastewater treatment plants

Prediction of construction cost of wastewater treatment facilities could be influential for the economic feasibility of various levels of water pollution control programs. However, construction cost estimation is difficult to precisely evaluate in an uncertain environment and measured quantities are always burdened with different types of cost structures. Therefore, an understanding of the previous development of wastewater treatment plants and of the related construction cost structures of those facilities becomes essential for dealing with an effective regional water pollution control program. But deviations between the observed values and the estimated values are supposed to be due to measurement errors only in the conventional regression models. The inherent uncertainties of the underlying cost structure, where the human estimation is influential, are rarely explored. This paper is designed to recast a well-known problem of construction cost estimation for both domestic and industrial wastewater treatment plants via a comparative framework. Comparisons were made for three technologies of regression analyses, including the conventional least squares regression method, the fuzzy linear regression method, and the newly derived fuzzy goal regression method. The case study, incorporating a complete database with 48 domestic wastewater treatment plants and 29 industrial wastewater treatment plants being collected in Taiwan, implements such a cost estimation procedure in an uncertain environment. Given that the fuzzy structure in regression estimation may account for the inherent human complexity in cost estimation, the fuzzy goal regression method does exhibit more robust results in terms of some criteria. Moderate economy of scale exists in constructing both the domestic and industrial wastewater treatment plants. Findings indicate that the optimal size of a domestic wastewater treatment plant is approximately equivalent to 15,000 m3/day (CMD) and higher in Taiwan. Yet the optimal size of an industrial wastewater treatment plant could fall in between 6000 CMD and 20,000 CMD.     

Water–energy–greenhouse gas nexus of urban water systems: Review of concepts,state-of-art and methods

Water supply and wastewater services incur a large amount of energy and GHG emissions. It is therefore imperative to understand the link between water and energy as their availability and demand are closely interrelated. This paper presents a literature review and assessment of knowledge gaps related to water–energy–greenhouse gas (GHG) nexus studies in an urban context from an ‘energy for water’ perspective. The review comprehensively surveyed various studies undertaken in various regions of the world and focusing on individual or multiple subsystems of an urban water system. The paper also analyses the energy intensity of decentralized water systems and various water end-uses together with the major tools and models used. A major gap identified from this review is the lack of a holistic and systematic framework to capture the dynamics of multiple water–energy–GHG linkages in an integrated urban water system where centralized and decentralized water systems are combined to meet increased water demand. Other knowledge gaps identified are the absence of studies, peer reviewed papers, data and information on water–energy interactions while adopting a ‘fit for purpose water strategy’ for water supply. Finally, based on this review, we propose a water–energy nexus framework to investigate ‘fit-for-purpose’ water strategy.     

Urban Wastewater Treatment and Reclamation for Agricultural Irrigation: The situation in Morocco and Palestine

As freshwater becomes increasingly scarce due to population growth, urbanisation and, probably, climate change, the use of wastewater in agriculture, aquaculture, groundwater recharge and in other areas will increase. In some cases, wastewater is the only water resource available to poor, subsistence-level farming communities. Although there are benefits to using wastewater in agriculture—such as better nutrition and food security for many households—uncontrolled use of wastewater is frequently associated with significant negative human health impacts. These health impacts can be minimized when good management practices are implemented. In this paper the existing situation, in relation to water resources availability, wastewater treatment and reuse in Morocco and Palestine, is presented.     

Cost-effectiveness of two operational models at industrial wastewater treatment plants in China: A case study in Shengze town,Suzhou City

The widespread illegal discharge of industrial wastewater in China has posed significant challenges to the effective management of industrial wastewater treatment plants (IWTPs) and caused or exacerbated critical social issues such as trans-boundary environmental pollution. This study examines two operational strategies, decentralized model and an innovative integrated model, that have been used in the industrial town of Shengze (located in Suzhou City) over the past two decades at IWTPs handling wastewater from the city’s dyeing industry. Our cost-effectiveness analysis shows that, although the operational cost of IWTPs under the integrated model is higher than under the original decentralized model, the integrated model has significantly improved IWTP performance and effectively reduced illegal discharge of industrial wastewater. As a result, the number of reported incidents of unacceptable pollution in local receiving water bodies had declined from 13 in 2000–1 in 2008. Key factors contributing to the success of the innovative integrated model are strong support from municipal and provincial leaders, mandatory ownership transfer of IWTPs to a centralized management body, strong financial incentives for proper plant management, and geographically-clustered IWTPs.     

废水资源化是实施可持续水资源管理的必然要求

介绍了可持续水资源管理的概念，阐述了实施可持续水资源管理的必要性。介绍了废水资源化的概念、意义及其发展历史与现状，论述了废水资源化是可持续水资源管理的必然要求。认为废水资源化管理必须充分考虑到其自身的特点。比较了废水资源化管理与普通的水资源管理的异同。     

长庆油田作业废水的处理与回用

介绍了长庆油田石油开发过程中的井场措施作业废水处理与回用技术应用现状和管理制度,并对下一步节水和资源化利用的研究方向进行了展望,通过技术引领和管理创新,促进石油开发与水资源利用的可持续发展。     

洗车废水的污染与环境管理研究

本文分析了洗车所造成的水资源的浪费、对环境的污染以及对道赂交通、居民、行人的影响，介绍了我国对洗车废水管理的现状，并从法制建设、执法监督、废水处理，先进洗车技术推广、宣传教育等方面提出了针对我国洗车废水污染的环境管理对策建议。     

A process integration approach to industrial water conservation: a case study for a Chinese steel plant

A systematic approach to optimizing water network has traditionally been utilized to exam and plan water conservation in industrial processes. In the present case study, water-pinch technology was used to analyze and optimize the water network of a steel plant near China's Zhangjiakou city. A system design was developed and a limiting constraint (Cl(-) concentration) was identified based on investigations of water quality then the minimum freshwater and wastewater targets were determined without considering water losses. The analysis was then extended by calculating the additional input of freshwater required to balance the actual water losses. A nearest-neighbor algorithm (NNA) was used to distribute the freshwater and recycled water among each of the plant's operations. The results showed that with some reconstruction of the water network, the flow rates of freshwater and wastewater could be decreased by 57.5% and 81.9%, respectively.     

Confronting limitations: new solutions required for urban water management in Kunming City

Despite continuous investment and various efforts to control pollution, urban water environments are worsening in large parts of the developing world. In order to reveal potential constraints and limitations of current practices of urban water management and to stimulate proactive intervention, we conducted a material flow analysis of the urban water system in Kunming City. The results demonstrate that the current efficiency of wastewater treatment is only around 25% and the emission of total phosphorous from the city into its receiving water, Dianchi Lake, is more than 25 times higher than its estimated tolerance. With regard to the crisis of water quantity and quality, the goal of a sustainable urban water environment cannot be attained with the current problem-solving approach in the region due to the technical limitations of the conventional urban drainage and treatment systems. A set of strategies is therefore proposed. The urban drainage system in Zurich is used as a reference for a potential best-available technology for conventional urban water management (BAT) scenario in terms of its low combined frequency of sewer overflow.     

Participatory environmental governance in China: public hearings on urban water tariff setting

In the late 1990s China started to expand its market economic reform to the public sector, such as water services. This reform led to major changes in urban water management, including water tariff management. The reforms in water tariff management relate not only to tariffs, but also to the decision-making on tariffs. Water tariff decision-making seems to move away from China's conventional mode of highly centralized and bureaucratic policy- and decision-making. The legalization, institutionalization and performance of public hearings in water tariff management forms a crucial innovation in this respect. This article analyzes the emergence, development and current functioning of public hearings in water tariff setting, and assesses to what extent public hearings are part of a turning point in China's tradition of centralized bureaucratic decision-making, towards more transparent, decentralized and participative governance.     

Conservation of indigenous plants to support community livelihoods: the MGU – Useful Plants Project

Through the MGU – Useful Plants Project (2007–2015) led by the Royal Botanic Gardens Kew, high-quality seed collections and research information have been gathered on useful indigenous plants selected by communities in Botswana, Kenya, Mali, South Africa, and Mexico. Local communities were trained in seed conservation, plant propagation, and planting activities, while revenue generation was promoted directly through the sustainable use of plants and plant products and indirectly through wider environmental and cultural services. The success of this project was determined by its participative approach, involving local communities in plant conservation activities and using plant research to support it. However, the promotion of sustainable use and income generation highlighted issues that confirmed the importance of using a ‘holistic approach’ to address the objective of poverty reduction and contribute to improved livelihoods in the communities.     

我国油田产出水再利用技术现状及展望

随着我国油气田勘探开发力度加大和新环保法的实施,油田开采过程中耗水量大和污水处理问题是我国油气田企业面临的共同难题。从污水余热回收、污水回注、压裂液重复利用、钻井废水再利用四个方面,介绍了国内油田产出水再利用技术研究进展与应用现状,指出目前存在的污水余热再利用应用范围不广、回注污水利用不合理、化工原料未回收利用等主要问题。并通过文献调研,展望了油田污水再利用技术的发展方向,指出需从污染源头防控入手,研发更加经济环保的液体配方,并深入研究从污水中取热、取水及取化工原料的循环再利用技术,因地制宜制定相应的水质及污水配伍性实验评价标准,实现从源头至末端治理相结合的油田污水清洁生产。     

宁波市农村生活污水处理模式研究

对现有农村污水治理方式进行了总结和效果评价。提出了适合宁波地区农村污水治理的4类模式。分别是污废合流的集中模式、分散模式,污废分流的分散模式、过渡模式。分析了模式选择的影响因素,分别是人口规模、集聚模式、地形、地质条件、功能区域,并对目标村庄进行亍相应分类,建立数学模型探讨了集中与分散模式的经济距离以及集中模式下户均投资的控制距离,最后根据研究成果对首批实施的14个行政村25个自然村的生活污水治理模式进行了选择。